Bakr, Ahmad Hasan al-

Bakr, Ahmad Hasan al- äkhmäd´ häsän´ äl-bäk´ər [key], 1914–82, president of Iraq (1968–79). He served as an officer in the Iraqi army but was forced to retire (1958) because of his participation in revolutionary activities. A member of the Ba'ath party , an ultranationalist left-wing group, he became prime minister after the Ba'athists seized power in 1963. He left the government later in that same year when conservative military leaders forced the Ba'athists from power. Bakr became president in 1968 after leading another Ba'athist coup, and was replaced by Saddam Hussein in 1979.